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Doing our own dirty-work

Now that offshore “processing” of refugees has been rightly ruled out, Australia must ask itself if it really has the stomach to do its own dirty-work. But first, let’s consider the worst-case outcome of returning to a pre-mandatory detention approach: locating and deporting the couple of hundred applicants whose claims are rejected. That has to happen anyway; we don’t have to lock up the rest. It won’t go down well with the talkback radio crowd, but it’s going to be a lot cheaper and more humane that what we’re doing now.